> skunk works project with no revenue potential You just don't know about that. Github is a code hosting and project management (somewhat) company. They're bui

> skunk works project with no revenue potential You just don't know about that. Github is a code hosting and project management (somewhat) company. They're building a tool that help teams write code that is then hosted on their product and it's based on web technologies. At some point, Github could pull a very pleasing workflow integration (in-browser or otherwise) and suddenly Atom would be very valuable to the company. If they could create the same sort of adoration we see for other editors (vim, emacs, sublime) it could also become an important reputation asset for the company. There are just so many ways this makes sense for them although, I agree, in terms of short term accounting there's nothing to see.